Saturday 1st February

[Bianconeri 1862]

No

Thought our game at yours had a fantastic big game atmosphere to it

 

[ROVERS⚽️]

Interesting. We have 2 wins in 10 and have been pretty drab recently, but then again, reading the match thread from last night, it seems no team played well last night/has been playing well recently (I guess that just shows how inconsistent and crap this league can be). Even Walsall have come unstuck in the last two games so all up for grabs still...

Crowley got his first assist last night (an easy pass in fairness). He has settled in well, definitely a class above what we had in that position before (Wearne). All our signings have made an impact so far - Jay Williams is just the kind of bruiser we needed as we were too soft in central midfield, Tommi O'Reilly has looked good on his cameos and grabbed a good goal at Fleetwood and Nathan Thompson was rock solid at the back against AFC Wimbledon and against Harrogate before he got injured. We definitely have a better squad than we had at the start of the season and enough quality to get promoted but it really has not clicked yet. Either we will have a dull end to the season and remain inconsistent or it will all just start to click and we will do what Crawley did last season. It feels it could go either way at the moment with a few months of the season left.

Either way, none of our fans are remotely confident we get our first win (or even just a draw) at your place. Our record at your ground is LDDDLDDLL. Scored 5, conceded 13.

We took 407 when we lost 3-0 at your place New Year's Day last year, which was decent for us to be honest. I suspect we will take similar this time, I would be surprised if we took any more so expect circa 400.

Yeah the Crowley signing especially felt like a statement of intent!. I’m sure once the quality has blended together you will either be a compete force next season or put a run together this season once everything clicks, I expect just outside or inside the play offs come what May. I had no idea you hadn’t won at our place over the years, fingers crossed nothing changes this weekend then. I agree on the quality of the league, it’s not what it was last season, I can’t believe I’m saying this but I don’t think Donny have been that good in the past 4 months and we are right up there. No disrespect to Walsall as they are a good team but runaway leaders level good?…I’m not sure, but they’ve been the only team to take advantage and go on a run and will take some catching plus they walked over donny so maybe I’m being harsh on them?. That’s a respectable away following 400/500, we took over 1k to your place but tickets were reduced, I figure 500 is more our regular following. Will Lindsay be safe if you finish mid table after those signings?. Now it’s the business end of the season it will be very interesting to see who goes on a run, always a couple of the mid table teams who get a run together!.

 

[ROVERS⚽️]

That augurs well for when you get back to playing well.

The worry is if we don’t get back to playing well then a few inconsistent results will come!. Fleetwood were probably better than us, Gills gifted us a goal after being on top and Harrogate GK gifted us a winner near the end. You’re right though!. I think if we improve we could absolutely put a run together and push on into the top 2/3. This league is still wide open, so it’s going to be exciting.

 

[DearneValleyRover]

Thought our game at yours had a fantastic big game atmosphere to it

More a judgement on noise of home support in general, that game was probably out of the ordinary

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

What's it like - I haven't been in there since it was the Sudeley Arms.

Scratch that, I've not been in there since I was 17 and ended up in hospital due to drinking too much GL (a Weston's Cider).

Our group were impressed, we had some local knowledge and it was his suggestion.

Clay oven pizzas looked great, good little lager, ale and cider selection (like a mini Brewdog) with something for everyone.

Not a football pub so to speak as too small and L shaped but if in small numbers it's close to the ground and well worth a visit.

 

[Scum.]

Yeah the Crowley signing especially felt like a statement of intent!. I’m sure once the quality has blended together you will either be a compete force next season or put a run together this season once everything clicks, I expect just outside or inside the play offs come what May. I had no idea you hadn’t won at our place over the years, fingers crossed nothing changes this weekend then. I agree on the quality of the league, it’s not what it was last season, I can’t believe I’m saying this but I don’t think Donny have been that good in the past 4 months and we are right up there. No disrespect to Walsall as they are a good team but runaway leaders level good?…I’m not sure, but they’ve been the only team to take advantage and go on a run and will take some catching plus they walked over donny so maybe I’m being harsh on them?. That’s a respectable away following 400/500, we took over 1k to your place but tickets were reduced, I figure 500 is more our regular following. Will Lindsay be safe if you finish mid table after those signings?. Now it’s the business end of the season it will be very interesting to see who goes on a run, always a couple of the mid table teams who get a run together!.

Yeah the general feeling is if it doesn’t work out this season, we should be right up there in the autos next May. Might just take time to get the squad blended and unfortunately a number of factors have led to this season so far looking like a write off. Personally I think we’ll sneak the play-offs but that’s the optimist in me…might be nice to be that team that sneaks into it for once rather than the team that always missed out on the autos by a point or two (given our abysmal play-off record aka 6 semi-final defeats in a row, that clearly doesn’t work for us).

Lindsey will be given the season and the beginning of next season regardless I reckon. Don’t get me wrong, it would still be a failure if we don’t at least finish in the play-offs, and let’s be honest, the true expectation was we should be doing even better than that (Lindsey himself said that anything less than automatic promotion is a failure when he joined). To be fair, he obviously came in midway through the season and inherited a squad built by Williamson, but he certainly has not yet made the real impact we would have liked. Things are better than under Mike though for sure…

Let’s hope we take some inspiration from Doncaster last season and go on a second half of the season run.

Yeah, I recall you guys regularly bringing circa 500 down to us, but it was a very good following earlier in the season (would take another 1-1 draw). Tangent, but I didn’t realise how big of a place Doncaster was to be honest, circa 25,000 more people than live in MK. Big local catchment area.

 

[Meadow]

Our game with Wimbledon will be tighter than Yorkshireman's wallet. 1-0 one way or a 0-0 you reckon. Someone like Matty Stevens with a quality finish.

Tighter than Yorkshireman's wallet. Love it.

Bradford at home Saturday. As a few Bradford supporters have said it will be a tight game. Our game's against them usually are anyway. Our home form is fairly good this season. Two narrow 1-0 defeats to Walsall and Grimsby and we could've got something out of both those game's. I'll go for a 1-0 win for us simply because we are at home. I won't be putting any money on it though !!!!

I have a feeling of dread about this one. No longer are our supporters so close to the pitch to wind up the opposition. Back in the day at Kingsmeadow an acquaintance wound up a Bradford player so much that he committed a red card offence. Hoping for three points but will happily take one.

 

[Don Caster]

Does any club in this league have a good home atmosphere? I certainly haven't heard one yet...

Wimbledon

 

[WhiteRussian]

Wimbledon

Who? Federer? or maybe when Murray was playing?

Anyway, Doncaster are going to eviscerate us.

 

[GTFCfish]

Who? Federer? or maybe when Murray was playing?

Anyway, Doncaster are going to eviscerate us.

That reminds me of that episode of Only Fools and Horses where Boycie is moaning to Delboy about when he asked him for tickets to Wimbledon for a client of his.

‘Well I got you the tickets didn’t i’?
“Yeah, they drew 0-0 with Ipswich”
Classic.

 

[Scum.]

Wimbledon

In fairness, AFC were probably the best. Then again, they won 3-0 in their cup final for this season so hardly surprising. But yes, better than most.

 

[OneDecentLester]

I’ve no words for our bad luck with injuries this season. He looked a class above aswell..

https://twitter.com/x/status/1884920307741290633

 

[spireite]

I’ve no words for our bad luck with injuries this season. He looked a class above aswell..

https://twitter.com/x/status/1884920307741290633

Christ how fecking annoying is that. With his age as well you wonder if by the time he comes back it could be curtains. At least for his time here. He did look colossal back there, that's really shite

 

[OneDecentLester]

Christ how fecking annoying is that. With his age as well you wonder if by the time he comes back it could be curtains. At least for his time here. He did look colossal back there, that's really shite

If it’s ACL that could be him completely finished

 

[hellogregory]

I’ve no words for our bad luck with injuries this season. He looked a class above aswell..

https://twitter.com/x/status/1884920307741290633

This is like us with Paul Dummett.

Tore his hamstring 4 minutes into his debut. It's probably him done for the season. We're paying him a rumoured 8k per week.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

If it’s ACL that could be him completely finished

Awful news for the player but at the ripe old age of 38 he's had a fine and lengthy career.

 

[LS Bantam]

It can’t be a major shock that ageing players with little game time are more prone to such injuries.

 

[iWomble]

This is like us with Paul Dummett.

Tore his hamstring 4 minutes into his debut. It's probably him done for the season. We're paying him a rumoured 8k per week.

£8K a week???? Surely nobody apart from possibly Premier loanees get anywhere near that at this level?

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

It can’t be a major shock that ageing players with little game time are more prone to such injuries.

It shouldn't be. It's the inherent risk of signing Dad's Army Golden Oldies.

 

[spireite]

It can’t be a major shock that ageing players with little game time are more prone to such injuries.

This is very true it's a risk you run. You perhaps expect to get longer than 8 days out of a guy though. We've had lots of long term injuries with young players this year too which is the frustrating thing. I might be wrong but I thought this was whack on his knee which sounds like it's done some damage, not sure something like that would discriminate on age.

 

[Stocky]

It can’t be a major shock that ageing players with little game time are more prone to such injuries.

Just going to say, it's a tale as old as time.

You get the odd one that comes off but any club that is hanging their hat on this type of signing and it goes wrong isn't particularly unlucky.

 

[OneDecentLester]

I completely agree about age when it comes to muscle injuries, but you could be 38 or just turning 20, and if your knee plants and bends in a way it shouldn’t, it’s giving way regardless and that’s what’s happened to him. It came from a coming together with a Bromley player, just one of them things… but one of them things that seems to have happened to us one too many times this season.